EP Review – Rona Sessions by the Perce Kingans (2020) (Boat Dreams From The Hill)
For a living, I do sums for the Government. With COVID busy decimating the various economies of the world, my workload has increased to what can only be described as mental levels. I am grateful I still have a job… butfor my sanity though I could just do with less of it !
As I sit in my office surrounded by the doom and gloom of trillions of ‘deficit numbers’, I am increasingly looking to the more gentile end of jangly sounds to accompany my busiest moments and to iron out the rapidly increasing stress lines in my furrowed brow. Lo-fi bedroom-pop has become an increasingly chosen friend to provide me with this pseudo aural cuddle.
The Rona Sessions EP, by Vancouver based Pierce Kinganhas been the recIpient of much of my neediness, which in itself is quite unusual at this prolific artist has not previously tended to course all things bedroom-pop through his multi faceted, often avante gard, musical machinations. Perhaps it was his similar reaction to all that was going on in pandemic world. Something decidedly calmer to the nerves?
Whatever his motivation, listeners benefit hugely. The superlative opener, How Could I Forget, starts off with the slightest of twanging melodic riffs through which a loving mantra (“How Could I Forget I Love You”) is repeated until fade. It is stunning in it’s goregous twee simplicity and also sets the aesthetic foundation that carries Sometimes through fuzz drizzled The Everly Brothers arrangements.
The other highlight of the EP is Good Times. Here The Umbrella Puzzles style twanging riffs are accentuated and mixed with the slightest of 60s surf pop sensibilities. Again the simple arrangements, lyrics and vocal delivery keep the track firmly in bedroom mode, but the track is vibrant and chiming enough to suggest it could break free from the lo-fi parameters at any moment.
At some point my need for the unobtrusive beautiful to accompany my hectic work load will subside and I will go back to exploring all manner of more raucous alternative jangle. Let’s hope it is not before this artist has explored his ‘sense of bedroom’ to the fullest. More is definitely required.
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